Sean Patrick Little
Bring The Heat
It was supposed to be a simple case: track a man suspected of having an affair and get proof of the affair for the man’s wife.
The Writer’s Dossier 6/24/2025 – The Sean Patrick Little interview
DOSSIER: In addition to having degrees in broadcast journalism and fiction writing, you’ve also been a dean of education. These are interesting and noteworthy, but The Dossier wants to know about your career as a comedian. Did you smash melons on stage or slay it at open mic night at the local Funny Bone? Were there groupies who followed you around the comedy circuit?
GUEST: I think “career” is probably not the right word to use. “Attempted career?” Maybe “pretended?” Maybe “Legend in my Own Mind?”
I never got anywhere with trying to be funny on stage. I loved doing it, but so do a lot of people. It’s kind of like writing novels that way.
I never got to a point where I had groupies. Or people who remembered my name week-to-week. I was in it just long enough to realize that if you don’t make it to a certain level of success quickly, it’s going to be a rough life. So I got out and got a master’s degree instead.
The best I could do was submit sketch packets to Conan O’Brien’s Late Night show and never hear back. Probably for the best. Most of my sketch ideas were bizarre—like a full-episode running joke about having Conan turn into a toga-clad dictator on March 15 just to be stabbed by Andy, Max Weinberg, and the Masturbating Bear a la Julius Caesar.
DOSSIER: That sounds perfect for Conan O’Brien. His loss.
Everyone needs a space opera
DOSSIER: Besides hiding from the membership committees from several major writer’s organizations you found a way of joining, you’re possibly best known for your Abe & Duffy mystery series. We’re hoping you’re going to continue these stories after the success of BRING THE HEAT, but The Dossier is wondering where the sequel to STRANGE ANGELS, a space opera, is in its production. Do you sing the lead? Is the cast local? Where can Tony Wirt audition?
GUEST: Strange Angels 2 (Stranger Angels?) is definitely in the works. The first one took me eight years to finish, so I need to not George RR Martin the second book. Strange Angels is me still trying and failing to get past the grossly premature cancellation of Firefly. My mother was (still is) a huge sci-fi nerd, and she sort of forced me into that life as a child. Most kids in 1982 wanted to be Michael Jackson. I wanted to be Tom Baker’s Doctor from Doctor Who.
Needless to say, I didn’t go to prom.
DOSSIER: We all miss Firefly. That’s one of the dumbest non-renewals in TV history.
No plans … no schedule … no Culvers
DOSSIER: What’s your writing set up like? Do you have a preferred time or place you write? Do you have a view of cows, a creamery or Lake Mendota?
GUEST: Oh, man…I should get a schedule. I keep meaning to do that. Do they sell them anywhere? I’m sure there’s an app I could probably put on my phone or something.
Maggie Ginsberg, one of my writing buddies out here in Wisco does the iron-clad schedule-thing where she’s in front of her computer from 5am-7am daily, churning word counts and being creative. I need to start doing that.
Basically, I don’t have a set plan or schedule; I just default to typing whenever and wherever it’s convenient. So, some days it might be 5-6 hours of typing, and some days I produce nothing. (Let’s be honest—there are a lot of days when I produce nothing.)
When my daughter started college two years ago, we were finally able to renovate the bedroom we used as her playroom into an actual office, so now I have a pretty sweet two-monitor setup with a semi-decent computer on a large desk like a real writer. Prior to that, I wrote several novels on an HP laptop in a booth at the Culver’s down the street from my house, plugging away a few days a week for 2-3 hours a day.
I keep begging Culver’s for a sponsorship deal, but no dice. I don’t think they’ve even comped me a free drink. (For those who do not know the joy of Culver’s yet, come to the Midwest…you’ll learn.) As far as views: I do have a pretty awesome poster of Chico Marx next to my computer, a great piece of art drawn by my buddy, John Fotiadis. I highly recommend having at least one of the Marx Brothers watch you write. Even if it’s only Zeppo.
DOSSIER: We’re canceling all future runs to Culvers here at The Dossier. Full boycott until they figure things out.
How Little might die
DOSSIER: How many times did you step outside in the month of January this year? Is winter a great time to write in Wisconsin? (We’re picturing Jack Nicholson in the last scene of The Shining.)
GUEST: Oh, the cold…
How I loathe it.
I’m one of the rare Wisconsinites who prefer summer to winter. And I’m even rarer in that I’m a fat guy who prefers heat to cold. I’ve never stepped outside on a 95-degree day and thought, “Hey, I might die.” Whereas, that’s a real concern when the wind chill hits -30. No matter how many Carhartt products I wear, the cold is still brutal. I try to avoid it whenever possible.
You’d think I’d be more productive in the winter, and to a degree, I probably am. But not so much that I look forward to February. I think this probably makes me a bad Midwesterner. I’d move south, but I’m sure I’d be an even worse Southerner because I don’t drink Sweet Tea.
Wisconsin: scenic & mysterious
DOSSIER: Wisconsin is emerging as a writer’s hotbed with The Dossier’s discovery of you, Shelley Kubitz, and Cayce Osborne. We know you all support each other’s work, but how often are there meetings, and when you all go, is there punch and pie, various cheeses, or does everyone just bring a casserole?
GUEST: Don’t sleep on Wisco as far as talent goes. We have a ton of great crime writers out here. Maddy Hunter, Christine DeSmet, Jerry Peterson, Jeff Nania, Nick Chiarkas, Amy Pease, Nick Petrie, Annelise Ryan, Victoria Houston, Alex Bledsoe, John Galligan–the list goes on and on.
I think there’s something intriguing about Wisconsin as a location and a state of mind that lends itself to interesting mysteries. Madison and Milwaukee are both simultaneously blue-collar as well as urbane–particularly with the colleges located in both cities–but go an hour north from either of those places, and it’s extremely rural. There’s an interesting mix of personalities in this state, so there are great character archetypes everywhere. Plus, the Driftless area of Wisconsin is scenic and mysterious. The lakes are charming. We have sweeping vistas, dense forests, and open prairies. We have access to the Mississippi and two of the Great Lakes, and Chicago and Minneapolis are both within an easy driving distance. There’s a lot of terrain and potential in this state that lends itself to crime writing. No matter what you need for your novel, you can probably find it in Wisconsin.
Cayce Osborne and I have actually spoken about how we need to do more around the Madison area as far as figuring out ways to better support the writing community located here.
I’m thinking we might need to start up a semi-pro crime writer Cornhole league. Or bowling. Or maybe horseshoes.
Wisconsinites are good at sports we can do one-handed, because the other hand is for holding beer.
DOSSIER: How could I forget my Dossier hero, Nick Petrie?! (Head-slap!)
The Reacher/Rapp/Harvath antithesis
DOSSIER: Is there anything else you’d like to reveal in your Dossier today? (We like headline-making breaking news and it gives our graphics department something to do other than play video games all day.)
GUEST: The next book in the Abe & Duff Mystery Series, BRING THE HEAT, hits your favorite book shopping sites on June 24, and I’m already 20K words into the sixth book. If you’re unfamiliar with Abe & Duff, just think of them as Holmes and Watson if they were two lower-middle-class schlubs from Chicago. I wrote them as an antithesis to the Jack Reacher, Mitch Rapp, and Scot Harvath types of heroes. (Although I love all three of those characters.) Unlike Messrs. Reacher, Rapp, and Harvath, Abe and Duff are not winning any fistfights, and they’re not getting the girl. They will probably get a burrito after they solve the case, though.
I’ll be returning to Bouchercon this year, and I’m very much looking forward to this one. Last year was the first year I was able to attend, and it was great, even if I was a little overwhelmed by the whole experience. I’m sure I’ll be much more personable this time. If you’re heading there, say hello. I’ll be the guy who looks like Uncle Fester in a Milwaukee Brewers jersey. And there’s always another book (or six) in the works. It never stops.
DOSSIER: That’s cool. We like burritos around here.
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